Quotes on Generosity and Giving – 2014

Here are some of my favorites for the Stewardship Season. Be sure to check the Archives for more on Generosity and Gratitude.

Greed has two opposites: (1) contentment, voluntary poverty, and (2) liberality, generosity, having mercy on others. Peter Kreft in Back to Virtue, p. 110

Both the cars Oprah Winfrey gives away on her show and the overseas schools established in her name serve to attract viewers and further her business interests, in addition to helping others….Call it narcithropy rather than philanthropy, giving something today usually comes with getting something, whether access, influence, or recognition. James Gilmore and Joseph Pine in Authenticity, p. 27

Affluent kids are less altruistic than kids with fewer financial resources and they become even more so as they get older. Madeline Levine in The Price of Privilege, p. 174

Every time I move step in the direction of generosity, I know I am moving from fear to love. Henri Nouwen Quoted by Thomas Jeavons in Growing Givers” Hearts, p. 27

A Man there was, though some did count him mad, The more he cast away, the more he had. John Bunyan in Pilgrim’s Progress

What I always say to people is that if you take the standard of (giving) 10 percent and say God required it of the poorest people in Old Testament Israel, and now that we’re under the grace of Jesus and we have the indwelling Holy Spirit and we live in this incredibly affluent culture, do you think he would expect less of us? Douglas LeBlanc in Tithing – Test Me in This, p. 64

Paul Harvey reported that a woman called the Butterball Turkey Company consumer hotline and asked about the advisability of cooking a turkey that had been in her freezer for 23 years. The customer service representative told her it might be okay to eat if the freezer had maintained a below zero temperature the entire time. But, even so, the flavor would have deteriorated so much that it wouldn’t be very tasty. Said the caller, That’s okay, we’ll just donate it to the church. Homiletics, July, 1997